>> if you're close to the storm's path, be safe. continue to watch cnbc as we continue to watch sandy. you stay safe, my dear, too. >> i shall, indeed. thanks for watching. that will do it for "power lunch." >> special edition of "street signs" starts right now. the days ahead are going to be very difficult. there will be people who die and are killed in this storm. >> sobering comments from maryland governor martin o'malley as hurricane sandy takes aim at the northeast. it will be likely one of the most powerful and expensive storms of the past 100 years. welcome to this special edition of "street signs." >> at this hour sandy inching closer to the east coast bringing the rains, tens of thousands of power outages already and causing the closure of the new york stock exchange today and tomorrow as well. we have the latest track on sandy for you, but first of all, let's start off with our reporters live across the northeast. we begin now with our scott cohn

in battery park near wall street. scott, what's the latest down there? >> reporter: well, mandy, as you can see, the wind is kicking up here. this happens in fits and starts as sandy gets closer. and it -- you begin to get a sense with this stiffening wind and rain that's coming down why they made the decision that they did to shut down the new york stock exchange. it may not be obvious initially. as you take a look at a live picture of the new york stock exchange. not too far from here, it is high and dry. they've done some sandbagging over at the corner of wall and broad. but that's not really the issue. it is just like back on 9/11, the last time that the exchange closed for multiple days under obviously much different circumstances. the exchange building itself was fine. the connectivity in to the exchange was fine. it was the member firms that they were dealing with, the issues of guesting people to work and so on. and in obviously, again, much

different circumstances here with a hurricane, it is a very similar situation. the exchange is outside the evacuation zone. the zone known as zone a here in new york city. 375,000 people live here, but that's just the start. we have seen police going around trying to get people out of the evacuation area, trying to get them to take this seriously. it is a similar appeal to one that mayor mike bloomberg made a short time ago. >> if you are still in zone a and can find a way to leave, leave immediately. conditions are deteriorating very raply and the window for you getting out safely is closing. >> reporter: two of the ways to leave zone a are now closed off to people. at this hour, the brooklyn battery tunnel, which would take people from here to manhattan to brooklyn, that is closed. the holland tunnel, which would take them to new jersey, that is closed as well because of the concerns about flooding. they are watching the bridges

closely as the winds kick up. let me give you a quick little orientation of where i am. that is governors island. new york haw bore, can you barely see it anymore. hudson river over there, liberty island. when the storm surge comes in, it will come here as high tide comes in. this area where i'm standing likely to be under water. guys, back to you. >> scott cohn, we'll see you again. be safe, buddy. thank you. meantime, the new york stock exchange is closed again tomorrow and the exchange saying they hope to reopen on wednesday. bob pisani who's normally on the nyse floor joins us now here. okay, this is -- i don't even want to call it rare because rare doesn't even seem like a strong enough word. >> we heard the closing -- all-day closing 1985, hurricane gloria. that -- storm gloria. it was a major problem then but it doesn't happen very often. you're right. it is rather remarkable considering how many people it takes to actually run the global stock markets. a lot of people are complaining, why can't we just do electronic trading. well electronic trading is not trading without humans.

there's plenty of people involved in electronic trading and every day you have tens of thousands of people who are involved in the stock market who are marketmakers in one form or another on trading desks around the united states, particularly in manhattan, or who are hedge funds. if you decide to remove all those people from the market because they can't get to work, who are you going to trade with? i think they thought the risk-reward ratio wasn't high enough. >> how much of the trading is actually done electronically? i saw one stat -- don't know whether this is true or not -- that 90% is done electronically. >> depends what you mean. if you mean executed by computer programs, yes, the new york stock exchange, for example the floor of the new york stock exchange, executes about 20% of the total new york volume. that's small. used to be 85%. even when you have electronic trading being executed where computers are executing programs, they're executing them on behalf of people and those people are sitting on trading desks, sitting at morgan stanley

or goldman sachs or sitting on hedge funds. if there's nobody on the buy side or sell side -- >> it's not an either/or. >> -- why do it? i think this was the right decision. you can't bring in people if they're in harm's way. what are you going to trade with? we're all very worried about market structure, market volatility. liquidity issues. i think -- >> low volume makes it easier to manipulate trade. >> absolutely. >> believe me, wednesday is going to be very important. it is the end of the month. they want to open it because there are a lot of firms that mark to the end of the month. mutual funds need asset values for the end of the months. get the p and l statements out. even if it is a shortened trading day, i think there will be a push to open on wednesday. >> thank you very much, bob. we are expecting the center of hurricane sandra to hit land tonight somewhere along the jersey shore. kayla tausche is live in cape may, new jersey. it is getti inting pretty bad o

there. >> reporter: mandy, previously you could leave the barrier islands here in new jersey, you just couldn't get on to them. now if you're here, you're pretty much stuck. governor chris ctie closing an additional 66 miles of the garden state parkway, in addition to a previous 63 miles already closed. so if you're trying to get off these islands, it is likely that the flooding is justeavy for you to go anywhere from here. atlantic city just north of where we are right now is extremely flood. public officials saying the entire city is under water. we've reached out to all the casino operators there to get comment on how they're bracing for this storm and how they're bat toning down the hatches with no comment just yet. we should know here at cape may there is record inland and coastal flooding and we're still seven hours away from high tide. the waves are far receded back behind me but they'll likely come all the way up to where i'm standing around 8:30 p.m. when that high tide is set to hit, mandy. so even though the conditions are worse rning, your window to

get out of here completely closed and the worst is still yet to come. guys, back to you. >> be safe, kayla. if you plan on flying either in or out of the new york area, good luck. there are no flights out of the major airports here. new york air travel impacts nearly the entire country because so many flights either originate or connect through new york. as we head further out from new york city we find our own brian schactman. he's live on the far tip end of long island onmontauk. >> i'm seeing a lot of this flying past my head. that's shingles. that shed behind me was obviously fully shingled. two hours ago i was on tv, it had a couple missing. it is all going to be gone before too long. you look at the ocean behind me, we're at dead low tide right now and i was 7 years old in the storm of '78 in boston.

those waves out there are as harsh as any i saw when my dad took me down to the beach there and that's what's going on in terms of concern. we went out and shot some video just a few minutes ago and the first high tide early this morning already wash out a road partially and we're expecting the next high tide about 8:00 tonight. where i'm standing right now, i'm told the water could come all the way up to me. at low tide we're already 20, 30 yards higher than the normal high tide if you can follow my lodger there. so right now on long island, there is about 45,000 people without power but the expectation is that number will go way up as we see the tide come in. brian, back to you. >> thanks very much for that, brian schactman. it is certainly a rarity that a hurricane makes landfall in the northeast. even the so-called perfect storm of 1991 only skirted the coast of new england. we're joined now by our meteorologist todd gross. todd, is sandy another perfect storm and how does it compare to that nor'easter 21 years ago? >> it is very similar.

we're going to show you exactly how it compares in just a moment. just getting out of the way, gloria for a moment, since we were talking about that storm, basically gloria was a storm that moved from south to new york. new york city and the jersey shore was on the weak side, the western side or the left side of the motion. that tends to be very weak. that's not the case this time. this time the storm is moving, as you could see, from east to west and that's where the similarities start with the perfect storm. let's take a look at similarities and differences. it is an extra tropical storm. it is not really a hurricane. when we say this is a really huge storm, it is huge for a non-hurricane. it has the strength of a hurricane but it is transitioning to a storm that isn't based on tropical characteristics. it's not a warm storm. it is moving backwards, just like the perfect storm, from east to west, and that has major consequences because it brings the water with it as it moves in from offshore. and we're talking about an

extremely deep storm for a non-tropical storm. in fact, if this remained a hurricane, it would become a category 2 or 3 the way it's going because of the deep pressure. that means both storms very deep causing all those winds, and of course the waves. let's take a look at the differences between the two storms. differences include the fact that of course sandy is much farther south. the perfect storm did not cross the coast like this one, and sandy stalls over land, not over water, which means rainfall is going to become a problem as well. throughout the afternoon, as this bears down on us, we'll let you know what's going on. looks like 8:00 in terms of the landfall. >> thank you very much. when it is all said and done, billions of dollars of damage expected from the hurricane. most of us are primarily worried about our families and our homes. speaking of homes, what kind of insurance do you have and what kind of claims may be submitted in our real estate reporter

diana olick has been on the phones with major home insurers today. what are they telling you? we know there is a big difference between storm damage and flood damage and many home insurance companies do not carry or cover flood insurance. >> reporter: that's right, brian. we know that the worst of the damage is yet to come but i want to give you a little perspective first on just how many homes are in the path of sandy and the danger tlo high risk, what it will cost homeowners and home insurers as well. core logic did the math for us. all told, 284,000 homes are at high risk for damage. total value of $87 billion. regionally here in d.c. metro area, we're not coastal so just over 2,000 homes in real danger. value about $735 million. philly is much the same. just under 9,000 homes exposed to real risk worth under $1.5 billion. but cities by big water like baltimore, that amps up the danger to real homes in danger

of damage. on the shore, virginia beach, norfolk, newport news, 59,000 properties at high risk, collective $10 billion. last, but definitely not least, you know the new york metro area. that's northern new jersey and long island. 119,312 properties at real risk. billions of dollars. $48 billion just in that region alone. we know what hurricane iris did last year and the cost to insurers, over $4 billion there. but what we have to look at is what the insurers are going to be able to do. as you said, there is federal flood insurance that some people can get. not a lot of people have that. but again, you have to look at the insurers coming in here. they say they're ready. they say they're ready to cover what they can do, but again this is going to be a lot and an expensive storm. guys? >> diana, thank you. now that wenow the nyse is closed again tomorrow, we are going to debate coming up whether or not the nyse could, or should, do better to plan for storms like this. and then later on, why hurricane sandy could be good

for gas prices. but for all the wrong reasons.

as hurricane sandy bears down on the northeast coast, you're looking at pictures of very heavy surf in the state of rhode island. our courtney reagan is joining us live from the storm desk with the very latest headlines on hurricane sandy. courtney? >> there are a lot of them. hurricane sandy is only getting angrier. 90-mile-per-hour sustained winds

have already been measured. jfk just recording a 66-mile-per-hour wind gust. the worst of the storm is still hours away. mayor bloomberg announcing new york city schools will remain closed on tuesday, as well as a number of catholic schools in the area. those private schools also affected. take a look at this new video we're just getting in from atlantic city. you can see the effects of the flooding are already very severe. we know the storm is only going to hit harder as time goes on. 54,000 customersre without power on long island. more than 42,000 without power in new jersey. 5,500 in westchester, rockland counties. this map shows the outages are only likely to get worse as the storm gets closer. the new york stock exchange, the nasdaq and bond markets will again all be closed tomorrow. as of now energy futures will trade normal at electronic schedule, break for 45 minutes, then resume at 6:00 p.m. today. conference board is postponing its consumer confidence index

number until thursday. the government has not announced any delay for the jobs number which is due out friday but again something we'll pay close attention to should that change. connecticut state highways are now closed to all vehicles. in new york, the holland and brooklyn battery tunnels are all closed. bridges will remain open until or unless winds reach 60 miles per hour. 66 already measured at jfk. speed limits have been reduced to 35 miles per hour on a number of new york area bridges. no driving after 4:00 p.m. in hobok hoboken. mass transit remains closed in new york city. maryland transit computer service and bus operations remain close. boston mass transit is also closed now as of about 15 minutes ago. wall street is a virtual gho ghost town today as sandy makes its presence known. here's what the nyse ceo had to

say about closing the stock exchange earlier this morning and even shutting down electronic trading. >> in terms of it, we have no doubt it can handle the volume. think in most emergency situations until you test it in production you're not going to know. that was going to be the first production task to see. our guess is it would have gone fine. who knows. but you also would not have been likely to see theum and volatility. i think a lot of people simply weren't going to participate today if we had tried to open it. >> is his point valid? we should note that since the interview, the nyse announced plans to close again tomorrow and the hope of reopening on wednesday. let us welcome in the ceo of better markets. he joins us now on the cnbc news line. dennis, your reaction to those comments. >> well, i thought it was interesting that he said -- his quote was, "our guess is it would have been fine, but who knows."

that should trouble everybody because nobody really knows. we haven't had a day closed to the weather since '85. we haven't had two days closed in a row since 1888. even if you go back to 2001 and the terrorist attacks and when they were closed, our markets today are so dramatically different than they were then. there is no way to know what's going to happen if they are closed for more than two days of trading. >> what would you have done, den sn dennis? >> i would have done a lot more before now. i don't mean to make light of the situation. but given wednesday, thursday and friday and given the projections for power outages, multiple days is out in outside the realm of possibility. we'll see a flood of month-end reports, earnings reports and reports of pent-up demand. nobody has any idea -- importantly if the electronic systems across these markets are going to be able to deal with

that, they couldn't even deal with a single algorithm that man amok from night trading that ran amok on august 31st. you have to wonder what will happen after these things emerge after two or four days of no trading. >> are there any systems in place that you are aware of to try and counter that? >> i'm not really aware of any because i don't think anybody's been thinking about this. every day in many respects our markets open and they're on a knife edge. from the beginning of the day to the end of the day. when it closes at the end of the day, everybody kind of wipes their brow and thinks, well that's great, we didn't have a computer problem today, we didn't have a flash crash and we didn't have night trading happen. but that's not how we should be running our capital markets, hoping and guessing that it will work at the end of the day as it did at the beginning of the day. that's where we are when we're facing what right now are going

to be massive operational challenges. >> dennis, thank you very much. stay safe, talk to you soon. let's talk energy now because this storm will affect oil and gas prices and not perhaps in the way you might be thinking. we're going to explain just ahead. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 let's talk about low-cost investing.

tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 at schwab, we're committed to offering you tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 low-cost investment options-- tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 like our exchange traded funds, or etfs tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 which now have the lowest tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 operating expenses tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 in their respective tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 lipper categories. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 lower than spdr tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 and even lower than vanguard. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 that means with schwab, tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 your portfolio has tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 a better chance to grow. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 and you can trade all our etfs online, tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 commission-free, from your schwab account. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 so let's talk about saving money, tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 with schwab etfs. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 schwab etfs now have the lowest operating expenses tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 in their respective lipper categories. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 call 1-800-4schwab tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 or visit schwab.com tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 to open an account today. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 funding is easy tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 with schwab mobile deposit. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 investors should consider

tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 carefully information tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 contained in the prospectus, tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 including investment objectives, tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 risks, charges, and expenses. you can obtain tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 a prospectus by visiting tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 www.schwab.com/schwabetfs. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 please read the prospectus tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 carefully before investing. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550

are you looking at some live pictures now from point pleasant, new jersey. that's one of our weather channel colleagues having a very tough time standing up in the strong winds. the high tide is not expected until at least 8:00 p.m. tonight. let's talk more about the impact now on the oil and gas price situation of the storm. joining us on the cnbc news line, foundisenior petroleum an at gas buddy.com. while you'd think priced might go up because of damage and reap finery shutdowns, there's nobody on the road probably for a couple of days. should gas prices go up or down in the days following the storm? >> they'll probably go up simply for the fact we're having a

hurricane breach land, shutting down refineries. this is similar to what we saw with irene last year. there will probably be an upward shift in the national average in the days ahead. irene last year took a similar path, knocked out similar refineries. the national average ended up increasing about 8 cents per gallon. so while the drop in demand on east coast is pretty significant, we could be looking at some longer term problems with these refineries being offline. >> john, do you agree? >> yes, i do. i think it is all going to come down to power, power, power, whether or not the frefineries can get back online, but also whether the terminals are closed that receive imports, not to mention the colonial pipeline even though they have installed generation capacity up and down the line. that will need to get restored for this more rosy scenario we are counting on. >> john, aren't we just building up stockpiles today, tomorrow, maybe wednesday and thursday? >> i do, brian. but to the extent people get

back on the road and back to work, we can rip through them. we'll need to see a for-sure restart date for these refineries. again, this storm is really kicking it down there in virginia and other places, again, which is the critical path for the colonials. i'd be as much concerned about that going down and staying down as i am for these east coast refineries. >> we've been talking about gasoline prices specifically. patrick, in terms of any macro economic impact of hurricane sandy on the broader economy, already crude prices themselves are down today because of those concerns. sitting just above $85 a barrel now. what do you see crude doing in light of this? >> crude inventories continue to rise in the autumn months. it would be likely especially with these stories kind of putting a psychological impact on traders especially that the u.s. could become the largest producer of oil over saudi arabia. there's just a lot of oil, whether it be from north dakota or other parts of the country. and these types of events that

shut down the input of oil through refineries are going to continue to mean that oil inventories will probably difficulty higher in the month ahead. long term oil might be bearish. oil prices, it is just -- demand is starting to decrease across the country. then you throw in the disruption of an event like hurricane sandy. just don't see how anyone could be bullish on crude. just because the markets are closed does not mean that hurricane sandy can stop street talk. >> that fact, as you know, nothing can stop "street talk." even though you wish it would. we'll be talking stocks, insurance, facebook, and even ford with a question that some people aren't happy that i'm going to ask. that's coming up next.

♪ atmix of energies.ve the world needs a broader that's why we're supplying natural gas to generate cleaner electricity... that has around 50% fewer co2 emissions than coal. and it's also why, with our partner in brazil, shell is producing ethanol - a biofuel made from renewable sugarcane. >>a minute, mom! let's broaden the world's energy mix. let's go.

okay, guys. you're looking at some live pictures right now of atlantic city. the streets there, as you can see, are flooded. casinos are shut down, all 12 of the casinos are shut down. that's only about the fourth time that's happened. of course we're still six or so hours away from landfall along the new jersey coast. guys, this is going to get worse. wooill sandy disrupt the fl of shipping into and out of the

northeastern ports. mary thompson is live at the port of baltimore. mary, ships coming? ships going? >> reporter: they stopped coming and going last night, brian. port of baltimore decided in light of hurricane sandy to shut down its operations, this is the 1th largest port in the united states when you consider the value of the goods that go in and out. we're standing a little bit away from it. it is probably about a mile or so either of us right here. we're on the chesapeake bay. but there are other ports along the u.s. as well that have decided to shut down their operations, too. most notably the port of new york and new jersey. as you mentioned, there are very dangerous conditions there. then the port of delaware bay which clouds the port of wilmington as well as philadelphia. those two ports, philadelphia or -- three ports. wilmington, philadelphia, new york and new jersey are very important for the refiners that you were just talking about. the reason being is that most of the imports of crude that they need come in through those two ports. given that they have been ramping down their operations, they won't be needing it in the

near future. but certainly this disrupts the flow of goods in and out of this country for a couple of days. and so they are monitoring the situation like other industries. once it is clear, of course they will resume them. nevertheless, they are concerned, keeping all non-essential personnel out and just having basically a skeleton crew there to keep these ports not operating but just have the staff there just in case. you guys, back to you. >> mary -- thank you so much for that update. in the meantime, let's get to street talk. maybe we can even call it storm talk. let's take a look at the first stock that we've got on the top here. there are all the stocks that you need to closely watch when trading resumes, of course, on wednesday, tomorrow, the markets will be closed again. insurers will take a big hit from hurricane damage. credit squeeze saying losses under $10 billion will be largely born by primary insurance. >> obviously when the storm is over and the cleanup begins, the assessment of damage begins. the insurance companies and

trading reserves are going to be largely in focus. credit suisse saying today, here's what we think is going to happen and most of the insurance companies, by the way, sold off by virtue of the s&p before the storm. under a certain level, credit suisse says mostly $10 billion for most of the names. here's who you got to watch. ace limited, allstate, chubb and xl group. also travelers. >> we picked out another few stories here. obviously the stocks aren't trading but nonetheless these are things that could maybe impact stocks when they reopen for trade. one of them is facebook here. the first of three major lock-up expirations occurring today. >> that's how it closed on

friday. down 42% year to date. a lot of new stock is available to be sold off when the market reopens on the second lock-up which hits november 14th as well. that's bigger than this one. the third lockup is december 14th. you want to watch if executives maybe start selling stuff. lot more facebook will be available when the markets reopen. that's the bottom line. >> lot more supply, not necessarily more demand. market forces there. . . pg&e saw a 79% rise in its earnings but that headline does not tell the full story. >> this is a utility company. their margins are largely capped by regulation. right? they can't just charge what they want. they're only allowed certain fluctuations. they did have slower than expected revenue growth but their margins did actually creep a little bit higher. it is a california based utility. they're in northern and central california so they don't have to worry as much about any kind of storm impact obviously here. there is a pg and e which is the east coast one, different

company. so watch -- or sse and g. watch pg&e when we open up wednesday, hopefully thursday. moving along to burger king, revenues were hurt. we've heard this refrain many times this earnings season by a stronger dollar. these multi-nationals are getting slammed by a stronger dollar. do you get more pang for your buck? >> not apparently with the dollar -- maybe you do. third quarter net income fell 83% or 2 cents per share compared to 11 cents per share last year. adjusted results topped expectations. much of the revenue hit came from selling company owned stores. back to franchisees. herb greenberg who is apparently going to call in to the show will have more on the dividend angle of burger king. l keep an eye on four guys. they are planning to release their earnings tomorrow as scheduled. this is kind of rung maybe some

alarm bells for some people. >> you mean me. i've been rattling the cage a little bit around here, folks. most companies releasing their earnings tomorrow are postponing them to wednesday or thursday. ford is going to be coming out with earnings tomorrow. of course you got my sort of conspiracy theory antenna up. i thought why dump them in the middle of the storm when nobody's going to be paying attention. some people saying i'm an idiot for thinking that. either way -- do we have phil? phil lebeau, let's move ahead. phil lebeau, am i just completely insane with that line of thinking they're trying to bury bad news in a storm? >> reporter: yes. it's a ridiculous train of thought. and here's why. two reasons, brian. first of all, there are 11 companies that have decided to postpone their earnings report that were scheduled to file them tomorrow. of those 11 companies, nine of them are based in the new york city area. it is only natural that their offices are going to be closed, therefore they're going to postpone the report. second of all, last week i

talked with the cfo of ford. he said to me, listen. in reporting the extended losses in europe, he also updated and raised their guidance for the third quarter. so they've got better than expected numbers. if they were dumping bad news, they would not have raised guidance last week. so it's a ridiculous assertion that ford is reporting tomorrow because it wants to get the news out while everybody's focused on the hurricane. >> still certainly something -- i'm sure some were thinking that. >> i don't know if it is ridiculous. let people dissect the news instead of worrying about making sure their house isn't flooded. right? zero people paying attention -- now nobody will pay attention to the earnings. fine. nobody can look at them. >> lot of people -- brian, anybody who is a ford investor heard they raised guidance last week. i can guarantee you all the analysts were out with notes last week. if you are talking about the retail investor, i think most people who have a very invested interest in ford have already been paying attention and will

find that information. i don't think it will be blown away because of the lrn. that's just my opinion. obviously you disagree -- >> no, i'm not asserting it. it is just a debatable point. just trying to throw it out there. >> why don't we take a look at airlines. this is also in your wheelhouse. i would imagine that the october numbers for a lot of these u.s. based airlines are going to be hit by the hurricane. to what extent? i know they're going to start reporting their monthly numbers next week? >> it's hard to know how much this hurricane will impact them but you got to take a look at the latest numbers because we've just had these numbers updated by a number of airlines today. when you take a look at some of the closings and some of the impact, look at delta. they just announced an additional 434 flights will be canceled. they're canceling in laguardia through tuesday night. united canceling through tuesday evening. american suspending separatiope in nine airports.

this map shows hubs in the eastern and northwestern united states. d.c. has united and us airways. philly has us airways. jetblue, delta, american, united, they all have hubs in new jersey. in the case of delta, they have both laguardia and jfk. talking with the folks at flight operations, their concern is laguardia. because if that water comes up and starts to flood the terminal, how quickly are they able to reopen? nobody knows until they can get in there tomorrow and the afternoon to see what the situation is. >> phil, we've got to leave it there. a lot of passengers stranded not just on this side but people trying to get back to the united states as well. thank you, phil. two of the best minds in the state of connecticut, herb greenberg and peter schiff. they're getting hit by hurricane sandy now but they are not afraid to come on "street signs." we're going to talk to them just ahead. [ male announcer ] do you have the legal protection you need? at legalzoom, we've created a better place to turn for your legal matters. maybe you want to incorporate a business you'd like to start.

or protect your family with a will or living trust. legalzoom makes it easy with step-by-step help when completing your personalized document -- or you can even access an attorney to guide you along. with an "a" rating from the better business bureau legalzoom helps you get personalized and affordable legal protection. in most states, a legal plan attorney is available with every personalized document to answer any questions. get started at legalzoom.com today. and now you're protected. monarch of marketing analysis. with the ability to improve roi through seo all by cob. and you...rent from national. because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle... and go. you can even take a full-size or above, and still pay the mid-size price. i'm going b-i-g. [ male announcer ] good choice business pro. good choice. go national. go like a pro. or that printing in color had to cost a fortune. nobody said an all-in-one had to be bulky.

or that you had to print from your desk. at least, nobody said it to us. introducing the business smart inkjet all-in-one series from brother. easy to use, it's the ultimate combination of speed, small size, and low-cost printing. [ male announcer ] this is steve. he loves risk. but whether he's climbing everest, scuba diving the great barrier reef with sharks,

or jumping into the market, he goes with people he trusts, which is why he trades with a company that doesn't nickel and dime him with hidden fees. so he can worry about other things, like what the market is doing and being ready, no matter what happens, which isn't rocket science. it's just common sense, from td ameritrade. i'm bill griffeth. coming up on closing bell,

continuing coverage of how hurricane sandy's affecting the markets and your investments. in fact, financial trade group sifma's ceo will join us. former wells fargo chairman and ceo gives us an insiders's account of how wall street is dealing with this disaster. and jetblue's chief operating officer will tell us how long it may be until air travel is back to normal again. that may be a while. maria and i look forward to seeing you. we've been displaced today. no new york stock exchange. we'll see you at the top of the hour though. >> it is not a bad place to be stranded here at the mother ship. thanks, bill. the earnings trend of missing on revenues continues and herb is here with his take on earnings. herb, first of all, let me just ask for a bit of color in terms of where you are out in there in connecticut, i'm not going to give your exact street name or number of your house. >> i will.

send me $20, herb, or i'm doing it. >> give us a feeling on the ground out there. how's it going with the hurricane? >> it's fine. i'm inland a bit. it's just been a lot of big strong wind gusts. nothing too much now. nothing like it will probably be. i still have electricity. that's the good news but there have been some flickerings. but we'll just ride through it. >> stand up so we can see what you're wearing. >> i was going to ask that but that would be inappropriate if a woman asked herb that. tell us more what you think about earnings. markets are obviously closed today but that doesn't mean the world has to sleep. tell us what you're thinking. >> first of all, i don't see any conspiracy theories in anything i'm looking at right now. but with this trend of top line missing bottom line beating, it continues. in fact, fmc just reported about 30 minutes ago. same trend. but one company i was looking at earlier was armstrong worldwide. that company makes flooring, building products. they guided down.

they pointed out when they beat the earnings that it is a result of cost cutting. but they also talked about this still be a challenging environment. i want to point out, people think this is a housing play. the housing side's doing well. it's the commercial and health care side that isn't doing so well. i also was sort of intrigued with lowe's. not the retail company but the lowe's which owns cma financials and loets hotels. in a financial, they did well, the cma financial group which they are 90% of. they noted no casualty losses. the first thing that went through my mind is how ironic to say that today. then burger king. we've got the company rolling out this 4 cent a share quarterly dividend. kind of interesting. if you go through the conference call to see what they're saying. think about this. this is a company that's $2.6 billion in debt. they're looking really toward the cash flow they think they're going to have going forward as

they shift from the -- as they sort of realign how they are today. they're basically going to shift into a company that is almost all franchise, which, by the way, gets you to the point of, will they be able to control the quality? >> herb, sorry to cut you off. you think companies should release their earnings when the market is closed for these kind of things? why not put your earnings out on a saturday? >> huh? >> why not put earnings out on a saturday? >> look. plenty are delaying. we've got at least 20 large ones -- >> i'm saying the delaying is fine. lack of delaying, putting them out when the market is closed, it troubles me a bit. my own opinion. >> the markets always -- hey, brian, the market is always closed when most of these companies report anyway. >> we'll debate if you make it back in. because i disagree. herb, be safe anyway. thank you very much. let's analyze the economic impact of the storm as much as

we can. because it hasn't even hit yet. joining us, peter schiff, ceo of europa civic capital. hey, peter, are storms like this a net add to the economy and gdp or net drag? >> they're never a net add. you always have these keynesian economists that try to tell us that there is a silver lining to the cloud. that is never the case. the resources that we have to expend to repair the damage from a hurricane, to replace what was lost, they come at the expense of other things that we might have been able to create or build if we didn't have to divert our scarce resources to repairing the damage. i think the big problem is, normally you save up for a rainy day. that's what we're told -- save your money for a rainy day. well, it is about to pour and we've got nothing saved. we're going to have to go deeper into debt to pay for any of the damage that needs to be repaired. >> i've got some stats here that i got from the street. it was saying that sandy could

be -- again, these are completely just estimates. we do not know the final number -- could be like $35 billion to $45 billion in terms of economic damage, including the loss of commercial activity, et cetera, et cetera. but it may unleash $15 billion to $20 billion in direct private spending. fixing houses, construction, infrastructure rebuilding, that kind of thing. you don't think that there is any silver lining at all out there? >> no. because it would be better if we didn't have to waste our resources replacing what we lost. it would be better off if we could use those resources to add to the economy. not replace what we used to have. it's the seen and the unseen. it is the broken window fallacy. you can see the work that was created to restore what was lost but you don't see all the activity that doesn't take place to make room for it. more importantly, where is the money going to come from? where are the resources going to come from? we are already broke. we're going to have to borrow

more money, we're going to have to print more money, we're going to have to import more stuff to repair the damage. what about the insurance companies? they're already suffering from 0% interest rates. if they have big losses, they have to jack their premiums up. prices will go up as a result of this so there's more inflation, our trade deficit gets worse. none of this is good news. unfortunately i think there is a good metaphor going on, we're in the lull before the storm right now. the same thing is true about our economy. we have a much bigger economic storm looming on the horizon and it is going to hit with a lot more force. >> well said. peter, we got to cut it a little bit short because we want to show our viewers breaking news out of new york city. thank you very much, peter schiff. what you're looking at right now folks is a crane in new york city. not exactly sure where, west 57th street? thank you, guys. that's a partial crane collapse on west 57th in new york city. one of the cranes that goes up multiple stories. hard to see there but it is

actually kind of bent over. the arm has swung back down. again, no other information on this. no word if it was manned, although that is highly manned. although that's highly unlikely in this weather. west 57th, a crane collapsed. we'll bring you more as it develops. many stores are malls are closed as they should be and they could stay that way for e day. how hard will the storm hit the restale stocks and sector? m tot. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 and the streetsmart edge trading platform from charles schwab... tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 i can even access it from the cloud and trade on any computer. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 and with schwab mobile, tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 i can focus on trading anyplace, anytime... tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 until i choose to focus on something else. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 trade at charles schwab for $8.95 a trade. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 open an account and trade up to tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 6 months commission-free online equity trading tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 with a $50,000 deposit. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 call 1-866-294-5373. i'i invest in what i know.r.

i turned 65 last week. i'm getting married. planning a life. there are risks, sure. but, there's no reward without it. i want to be prepared for the long haul. i see a world bursting with opportunities. india, china, brazil, ishares, small-caps, large-caps, ishares. industrials. low cost. every dollar counts. ishares. income. dividends. bonds. i like bonds. ishares. commodities. diversification. choices. my own ideas. ishares. i want to use the same stuff the big guys use. ishares. 9 out of 10 large, professional investors choose ishares for their etfs. introducing the ishares core, etfs for the heart of your portfolio. tax efficient and low cost building blocks to help you keep more of what you earn. call your advisor. visit ishares.com. ishares. yeah, ishares. ishares by blackrock. call 1-800-ishares for a prospectus which includes investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses. read and consider it carefully before investing.

pictures of a foebl broken crane on the luxury apartment building going up on 57th and central park called 157. we'll keep you updated on what's happening. so far is there are cops in the area and they're starting to evacuate the area so if it does fall, no one will get hurt. let's get to the weather channel's paul walsh with some of the numbers on sandy's likely retail impact. thanks for putting in long days. we know the usual suspects are being sold out. water, booze, whatever. what else do you expect to sell?

>> interestingly, the storm hit, and where the threat of the storm came in overlapped where the snowtober storm happened last year. that saturday, the last day of the fiscal october last year got hit by the storm. this year they got hit by the rush of people coming in to actually buy the stuff they needed. there's a tail wind for october. i would expect when retail results come out on thursday, there might be a benefit. >> tail wind for october incomes and headwind for november numbers because we're pulling ahead demand and for some these are unplanned purchases, right? >> yes. >> they are not expected so eating into someone's budget they might otherwise use later in the year. >> we go into november and we have potential for massive power outages. fiscal reports saying this could have a 2% to 3% impact on retail same store sales for the specialty apparel retailers as a result of this storm. we don't know how long this

power outage will persist but it will be very disruptive. >> i want to just reiterate what's going on, paul. thank you very much. stay here for just a second. folks, to reiterate what mandy talked about, that's the 157 building, 90-story luxury condo building. some of the most expensive in new york. being built on 57th and sixth. that's a partial crane dangling back to the side. that is multiple, multiple stories up. obviously, very dangerous situation. according to our sources, police cordoned off the area. we talk about insurance, homeowners insurance, insurance of all kinds. insurance costs pass along. people buy things in dangerous situations, things happen, they end up suing, right? how much do stroms impact costs overall in the long term because of insurance across the board? >> right. obviously, this going to -- this particular event is going to

have a huge impact, on the east coast. insurers -- all models are actuarial models. this is unprecedented and it could change the models. >> we have to leave it there. to reiterate, this is going to be what you're seeing here on 157th with the partial crane collapse. it was going to be manhattan's tallest residential building when completed. we'll reiterate cops have cordoned off the area. robert frank will call in after this quick break to give us more on this. he has covered this particular building extensively. stay tuned. all energy development comes with some risk,

but proven technologies allow natural gas producers to supply affordable, cleaner energy, while protecting our environment. across america, these technologies protect air - by monitoring air quality and reducing emissions... ...protect water - through conservation and self-contained recycling systems... ... and protect land - by reducing our footprint and respecting wildlife. america's natural gas... domestic, abundant, clean energy to power our lives... that's smarter power today.

domestic, abundant, clean energy to power our lives... thank you, mr. speaker, uh, members of congress. in celebration of over 75 years of our government employees insurance company, or geico...as most of you know it. ...i propose savings for everyone! i'm talking hundreds here... and furthermore.. newcaster: breaking news. the gecko is demanding free pudding. and political parties that are actual parties! with cake! and presents! ah, that was good. too bad nobody could hear me. geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. ♪

[ male announcer ] how do you engineer a true automotive breakthrough? ♪ you give it bold new styling, unsurpassed luxury and nearly 1,000 improvements. introducing the redesigned 2013 glk. see your authorized mercedes-benz dealer for exceptional offers through mercedes-benz financial services. breaking news from a scary situation in new york city. that is the 90-story 157 luxury condo building. that's a crane partially collapsed. the left side of that crane is dangling precariously over 57th street. >> any minute now our wealth reporter robert frank will call in and give us details. he has extensively covered this detail. we will continue coverage of hurricane sandy here. thank you for watching "street signs.